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Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:56 pm
by Oldgringo
Dad and I were at Varallo's - Belle Meade, TN when we got the news.
What news, you ask?

Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:59 pm
by TheArmedFarmer
JFK assassinated. My parents hadn't even met yet (shows how young I am!!).
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:00 pm
by Mike1951
Mrs. Lowe's 5th period class, 7th grade, Baytown Elementary. The office played the reports over the school intercom.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:04 pm
by seamusTX
Third-grade classroom. St. Gabriel's grammar school, south side of Chicago. It was quite a blow to the Irish Catholics.
The oddest thing that stuck with me over the years was that one of my younger cousins (age 5 or so at the time) turned on the TV and saw the news coverage of JFK's assassination, and thought that he had caused it.
He got over it.
- Jim
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:04 pm
by The Annoyed Man
I was in my 6th grade classroom in the middle of some lesson or other, when the principal came to the door and called the teacher over. They spoke in low tones, and when the teacher turned back to face the classroom, she was crying, and she told us that the President had just been shot. We wheeled the TV to the front of the classroom, and the rest of the school day was devoted to following the day's events.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:29 pm
by AEA
I was in Junior High School and already had my driver's license at 15 & 1/2.
I was skipping school that day and was driving a 1960 Red & White Chev Impala Convertible in Downtown Dallas, 2 streets over from where the incident occurred. I had a buddy with me and 2 girls & about 2 or 3 cases of beer and some vodka. We were going to someone's house for a all day party!
We were listening to the radio and once we heard what had happened, the girls started crying and wanted to go home. We ended up taking them home and then stopped at a buddy's house and began our drinking binge. Watched TV the rest of the day.
Yea, I was a bad boy in those days. After I made it to 17 & 1/2 I joined the Navy and went to Vietnam. The Navy was successful in finally straightening me up........

Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:30 pm
by stroo
We heard the news just before school ended. I remember talking about with my friends as we walked home in the snow.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:50 pm
by nuparadigm
Senior year, Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio. My debate coach pulled a 1/2 pint out of her handbag and took a big slug (she thought no one was watching).
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:01 pm
by flintknapper
Haddonfield, New Jersey....4th grade class. Mother Superior made the announcement over the P.A. system and students were allowed to leave school early if released to a parent or guardian.
I remember well... the look of shock and disbelief on everyone's face. Later as the reality of it sunk in...many folks were brought to tears.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:04 pm
by nitrogen
I wasn't born yet.
This incident had a huge effect on my parents; mostly my mother. It, and the shooting of MLK made her the rabid anti-gun person she is today.
One of her sisters is worse; a REAL LIVE Communist. She left for Holland after meeting a man from there a few years later.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:06 pm
by MoJo
Spanish class - - - Senior year. I'll never forget the look on my teacher's face.
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:06 pm
by HighVelocity
My parents were freshmen in high school.

Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:09 pm
by killerfly128
TheArmedFarmer wrote:JFK assassinated. My parents hadn't even met yet (shows how young I am!!).
same here
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:34 pm
by RKirby
I was in the 5th grade in Homestead, FL. The principal made an announcement over the p.a. system that the president had been shot and had died, and that school was ending early that day and we were to leave the school grounds ASAP.
This was a nervous time in south Florida anyway with Castro's Cuba only 60 miles away and the Cuban missile crisis still fresh in peoples minds. I vividly remember the massive military build up in south Florida during the stand off over the missiles in Cuba. The events that unfolded that day only put people even more on edge. My dad was stationed at Homestead Air Force Base at that time and was on duty for 48 hours straight when the base was put on high alert status after the assassination.
Many at that time believed that Castro or Khrushchev were behind the assassination. Some of us still do...........
Re: Where were you 45 years ago today?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:35 pm
by Liberty
Our school bus driver in Easton Mass told us the President got shot. We asked " What president?"
While we were shocked. We didn't mourn him or nor were we saddened. , I guess we knew him better than most folks around the country. My dad claimed that maybe Johnson won't be trying as hard to get us all killed.